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<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="content-type"><title>introduction</title><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Section 1. Introduction</span></big><br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">What is PyAlg</span><br>
<br>
PyAlg is an application mainly targeted to students studying or
following a course on algorithms and data structures. It can be used as
a learning platform in the lectures or in self study. Its main feature
is providing a simple way of benchmarking algorithms written in Python.<br>
<br>
It was originally designed for the students following the bachelor
level course on Algorithms and Data Structures from the Department of
Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Functionality</span><br>
<br>
Some basic features of the application:<br>
<ul>
  <li>Benchmark algorithms</li>
  <li>Compare algorithms' running time and line count</li>
  <li>Visualize the flow of an algorithm</li>
  <li>Get syntax highlighting for the source code</li>
  <li>Add your own Python algorithm to the already available library of algorithms<br>
  </li>
  <li>Manage your algorithms in the library<br>
  </li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tools used for this application<br>
<br>
</span>matplotlib - a Python 2D plotting library (http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/) <br>
trace module - allows tracing of Python statement execution (http://docs.python.org/library/trace.html)<br>
timeit module - measure execution time of small Python code snippets (http://docs.python.org/library/timeit.html)<br>
pyqt - a Python binding of the cross-platform GUI toolkit Qt (http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/pyqt/)<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Feedback</span><br>
<br>
To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the application, use the project's issues page: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pyalg/"></a><a href="http://code.google.com/p/pyalg/issues/list">http://code.google.com/p/pyalg/issues/list</a><br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Joining the project</span><br style="font-weight: bold;">
<br>
Hope you enjoy using the PyAlg application and that you find working
with it productive. However, there is always room for improvement. You
are invited to join the team if you have some spare time.<br>
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